Browsed byTag: Valve

Steam, it’s not the be-all and end-all of the PC gaming market. It might have over 125 million users, with 16 million active right now, but other storefronts are out there. There is Uplay and Origin from the AAA publishers, with itch.io and Humble Bundle targeting the indie markets. Users have lots of choice now for where they buy their games, but we can’t deny Steam stands at the top of the pile. Despite its numerical supremacy, Valve’s little baby isn’t having…

This past week saw GameInformer drop a massive article charting Andrew Reiner’s longstanding quest to unearth information from Valve on the latest goings on with their most famous franchise, Half-Life. What emerged was a lengthy interview with an inside source, which pretty much confirms that Half-Life is all but dead. The article though prompted me to revisit an old home – valvetime.net, or as it used to be know, halflife2.net. What did I find? An interesting article looking at Half-Life Decay.

Steam has seen a lot of changes take place over time, progressing from a simple store to buy games, to somewhere selling software and movies. From this coming Friday, 30th September, you will be able to read the first graphic novel to launch on Steam. The first chapter of the Half-Life themed comic, Half-Life A Place in the West has been available online since 2015, but will be coming to Steam with new pages.

There was a moment in the new (and awesome by the way) Doom which instantly reminded me of Half-Life. The moment came when I entered the core of the Argent Energy Tower, and I was sent back in time to Anomalous Materials in Half-Life. Bear with me, and I will explain all after the break.

Valve Ready More Counter-Strike and DOTA2 Goodies – No Half-Life 3 Leaves The World Sad

Valve have managed to bring joy to two thirds of the PC gaming population while leaving the other third wishing they had some news to hold onto. I am of course talking about news regarding Dota 2 and Counter-Strike and the (continued) absence of news about the mysterious less spotted Half-Life 3. What news do I bring? Hit the break…

Now that Steam Family Sharing has been officially out for a few days have you all been making use of it? I certainly have, joining my account with a few of my friends and suddenly I have over 250 games available to me.

Following its release last July on iOS and Android devices, Deus Ex: The Fall will launch on PC via Steam this March. The new version will receive a host of additions such as updated AI, an improved tutorial, Steam achievements and badges and improved graphics optimisation.

Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey Talks About The Challenges Of Porting Games To VR

During a recent ‘Steam Developer Day’ Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Rift gave a talk about the pros and cons of porting existing games to the Oculus VR. He believes that consumer virtual reality is closer than we think and that there is the potential for a game developer to step into the VR world and produce a genre defining game in the way that Doom once was.

Valve clearly aren’t content with the SteamOS and In-Home Streaming as they launched the closed beta of Steam Music earlier this week. To have a chance of gaining access to the Beta, you have to be chosen from the Steam Music Group. Unfortunately I haven’t been enrolled yet, but our friends at ValveTime.net have.

While I was loading up Steam this evening I was merrily flicking through Twitter and saw a link to PC Gamer’s article on the Steam in-home streaming beta. Safe to say, I was intrigued to see what the streaming service was like for myself. I quickly opted into the relevant Beta through my Steam client, dug out my netbook and got ready to play. Some brief thoughts follow.

Valve certainly aren’t shying away from showing off what they are working on with their attempts to take over the living room as they have today released a new video showing off their innovative new controller.

Whilst Valve’s first two announcements took many by surprise, the third unveiling that occurred today suffered somewhat from being a shade predictable. Amidst the excitement of the first two announcements, a small, innocent and rather NES-like controller had quietly sat, conspicuously absent from all of Valve’s previous announcements, seemingly observing developments and waiting for its inevitable moment in the spotlight.

It isn’t quite what I was expecting from the latest Valve reveal. Rather than detailing what we thought would be the Steam Box, they instead talk about Steam Machines entering beta and drop a big hint that controller input will be next on the agenda for Friday’s reveal.

After Valve decided to unveil the SteamOS we here at The Reticule Towers thought we would come together and share our thoughts on this, the first of Valve’s three announcements planned for this week. We might also muse on what else they might reveal. We are pleased to welcome back previous, and most excellent, writer Steph Woor for a one-off piece of opinion sharing. Hit the break to read our thoughts.

Valve have made their first reveal of the week and it is a bit more all encompassing than I for one first thought. I was expecting simply a reveal of the Steam Box today, instead we have received word of SteamOS, Valve’s foray into replacing Windows and Mac on what is a Linux based system. There is bound to be a lot to take in from the next two announcements (next coming Wednesday) over this week, so you can find a brief run-down after the break.